Does stretching actually achieve anything beneficial, or does it amount to nothing more than a passing fad? Does stretching accomplish anything more than perhaps a 'feel-good' experience in preparation for playing sport? In order to throw some useful light on the subject in the limited space of this article, it's helpful to look at a few issues that if respected, can have a profound effect on back and neck pain sufferers throughout the world. In doing so, we will look at issues like why, when and how a person looking for relief from back and neck pain might perform this questionable practice of stretching if it has any genuine medical validity.



Let's first look at the question of why a person should stretch. Stretching, when done properly, actually accomplishes a number of physiological effects. Stretching represents precisely 50% of the essential elasticity factor vitally necessary for soft tissue, particularly muscles, to function as they should. Without elasticity, in other words, the capacity for muscles to lengthen and shorten, the joint [or joints] that the muscle crosses, cannot achieve the movement the particular joint is capable of. When a joint cannot function effectively, pain usually results.

Exercise, particularly resistance exercise, produces the other 50%. This is due almost entirely to the fact that resistance exercises, by the very nature of the way in which the mechanics of muscles operate, produce a capability for the joint to create movement by shortening its length across that joint [or joints]. Simultaneously, as that muscle contracts [or shortens within itself telescopically to create the movement], the corresponding [or antagonist] muscle lengthens to facilitate the movement. Failure for this to occur will result in joint dysfunction, as well as previously stated, pain. So, if resistance exercises exclusively create the capacity for muscle fibres to shorten, then what creates the capacity for the essential lengthening of muscle fibres to allow the joint to move? Of course, you are way ahead of me, and of course, it is stretching, provided, of course, it is done effectively.

Might there be any other arguments as to why stretching is necessary? And not surprisingly, there are. Stretching minimises the frequency and inclination for muscles to tear during the process of rapid shortening or lengthening. Additionally, stretching has a major role to play in eliminating waste products from muscle fibres, particularly waste products that have been deposited in muscle fibres as a by-product of exercise. Stretching, if performed correctly, also plays a crucial role in detoxifying muscles as well as the removal of fibrous adhesions.

Now, let's have a glance at the when factor. In order to minimise the risk of injury in sport, particularly in any form of contact sport, or in sports that involves anything more than a token amount of jarring or weight-bearing activities, stretching is essential to effectively prepare the muscle fibres for those activities. And in keeping with the content of the previous paragraphs, effective stretching should also be comprehensively performed after completion of the sport activities but before cooling down has occurred. This is also true for any non-sporting strenuous or weight-bearing activity such as lifting or carrying. This may seem obvious to some, however if you cast your mind back to the past, can you, with confidence, say that this was routinely done each and every time it should have been? And if it had, might you now not be suffering the pain that has led you to seek assistance in recovery? The glaring omission so far in the when argument is that effective stretching should also be done both at the beginning and the end of a stressful or demanding day, as well as at the beginning of the next.

A vital and fundamental function that needs to be stated categorically is the critical need for the spine to be de-compressed on a daily basis, and not surprisingly, effective stretching is the simplest and most convenient method to do exactly that. Daily spinal de-compression ensures that each day is relieved of the burden of accumulated spinal compression from all of yesterday's and every other previous day's compression being added to all of today's demands for your already compressed and painful spine. Apart from the other physiological benefits, stretching is also one of the most, if not THE most crucial, essential, and self-enabling methods of achieving spinal de-compression, particularly when vertebral or disc degeneration is present. This process represents one of the most foundational pre-requisites for the recovery of any back and/or neck pain sufferer. De-compressing the spine, on a daily basis, is absolutely vital for any or all sufferers if they are to restore spinal function, and therefore to reduce pain.

The final factor is one that every other factor depends upon; the how factor. Many sufferers declare that they regularly include stretching routines, yet when asked to describe their routines, it generally unfolds that the stretches being done are either inappropriate for their recovery, AND/OR the stretches are being done in a way that cannot possibly bring about any benefit. To use an analogy; I might spread out all the parts for a brand new machine on a bench, but if I don't know how to put the pieces together, then all I end up with is a collection of parts that don't work cohesively the way they should.

If we are to have a body that works the way it has in the past before the problems manifested, we must have all, or at least most of the parts in good working order and arranged in a cohesive and organised manner. If any further convincing is required that stretching plays a fundamental and unique role in the process or recovery, we might like to take a look at the animal kingdom, for example at a dog, a cat, a horse, or any other animal we can think of, and the very first thing most of these animals do after waking up, is to stretch. And considering that most of these animals have horizontal spines, whereas our spines are vertical for most of the time, and especially considering that we often carry extra loads, the need for us humans to stretch regularly and do so effectively will probably leap vertically up our own priority scales. Add to this the lesson from the feathered species, and we learn that birds actually stretch almost continuously throughout the day and night, and not just when they wake up. So, please, remind me again who the intelligent ones are??!! Stretching, we should overwhelmingly conclude, is far more than just a trendy fad, and when done correctly, becomes an essential ingredient in any recovery regime for back or neck pain sufferers [or then again, possibly sufferers might opt for surgery, or lifetimes of medication dependency, or maybe an acceptance of hopelessness, but that's unlikely the reason you have chosen to read this and other articles].